One of Texas’s most high-profile district attorneys, Williamson County D.A. John Bradley, faced a resounding defeat last night in the Republican primary—a race that became a referendum on his handling of the Michael Morton case. Morton, as you may recall, was exonerated last year after serving nearly 25 years behind bars for the murder of his wife, a crime that DNA testing revealed he did not commit. Bradley had opposed DNA testing in the case, and spent no less than six years trying to prevent it from going forward. Only after a ruling from an appellate court did the testing proceed. The results not only cleared Morton’s name, but pointed to another man, Mark Alan Norwood, whose DNA was found on a blue bandana that was also spattered with the blood of Morton’s wife, Christine. Norwood’s DNA was subsequently linked to another crime—that of Debra Baker, an Austin woman who was bludgeoned to death in 1988, and whose killer had never been caught.

Although Bradley tried mightily to distance himself from the Morton case—even going so far as to say that he had helped Morton gain his freedom—local voters were not so easily swayed. A widely-read local blog, the Wilco Watchdog, relentlessly dissected Bradley’s missteps in the case:

Bradley mocked Mr. Morton’s claim that DNA testing on the bandana and other items could possibly be linked, in Mr. Bradley’s words, to “a mystery killer”… Bradley derided Michael Morton’s request to test the evidence in light of the unsolved case as “silly,” and he told Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle that Morton was “grasping at straws” by refusing to give up his quest for DNA testing.

The criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfastunearthed a damning thread of comments that Bradley had written on the Texas District and County Attorneys Association’s user forum several years earlier that suggested he was more interested in destroying DNA evidence than testing it. Observed Grits:

Bradley advocated seeking DNA destruction as part of plea agreements on the grounds that “Innocence … has proven to trump most anything.” “A better approach,” he said, “might be to get a written agreement that all the evidence can be destroyed after the conviction and sentence. Then, there is nothing to test or retest.”

Williamson County has always prided itself on being tough on crime, and on handing down some of the most punitive prison sentences in Texas. There was no better embodiment of this than Bradley, who prided himself on not seeing any shades of grey. In 2009, when he helmed the Texas Forensic Science Commission’s aborted inquiry into the controversial case of Cameron Todd Willingham, he famously scuttled questions about whether or not Texas had executed an innocent man. Bradley—who was tasked with conducting a supposedly impartial inquiry into the flawed forensic science that had helped convict Willingham—set the tone when he called Willingham “a guilty monster.”

The Morton case served as the ultimate litmus test of Bradley’s particular brand of justice. And Bradley, try as he may, could not escape it. This spring, Mark Landrum, the jury foreman in Morton’s 1987 trial, endorsed Bradley’s Republican primary opponent, county attorney Jana Duty. So did Caitlin Baker, the daughter of murder victim Debra Baker. Soon an anonymous person nicknamed “the Bandana Bandit” began tying bandanas to Bradley’s political signs—a quiet reminder of the D.A.’s failings.

Though Morton himself stayed above the fray, his attorney, John Raley, of the Houston firm Raley & Bowick—who worked for six years pro bono on Morton’s behalf—penned a damaging letter that ran in several Central Texas newspapers shortly before the election. Raley did not endorse Duty, but wrote:

Instead of agreeing to a simple test that can only reveal the truth and would be free to the state, Bradley spent countless hours and taxpayer dollars opposing the testing every way he could. It cannot be denied that if the murder happened in 2005, the bandana would have been DNA tested as part of law enforcement’s efforts to identify the murderer. When I asked Bradley why he was fighting so strongly against DNA testing, he said, “It would muddy the waters.” I responded, “Mr. Bradley, truth clarifies.”

Much of the Williamson County political establishment threw itself behind Bradley, as did Governor Rick Perry (who had previously installed Bradley at the helm of the Forensic Science Commission). In a letter to Williamson County Republicans this spring, Perry praised Bradley’s “experience,” “sound judgment,” and “integrity.” The governor added, “You and your family are safer because John Bradley has served so well as your district attorney.”

Williamson County voters seem to have seen things differently. Despite Duty’s own baggage—she was reprimanded by the State Bar last fall —she still prevailed by a resounding ten-point spread. (She will face Democrat Ken Crain in the general election on November 6, but in heavily red Williamson County, the Republican primary is the election to watch.)

Bradley, who is rarely at a loss for words, has not issued an official comment thus far. His website now only bears one sentence: “Thank you to all the supporters of John Bradley for Williamson County District Attorney.

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Comments

Andy Taubert

john Bradley is a menace to society, for what transpired in the Michael Morton case, john Bradley and countless others not only played god but in order to further there careers suppressed evidence and let the real killer kill again in 1988 and who knows if that was his only other murder. John Bradley , ken Anderson went out of there way for Years to defend not testing an innocent mans dna exonerating him , john Bradley still is among us, Anderson did some jail time both were in cahoots for years and Texans still let john Bradley roam the streets with a six figure job lol, Texans thought you were no nonsense

jeanlingelbach

If you are still voting Republican after knowing what you know about their agenda, shame on you and you get what you vote for. Republicans and their agenda stink.

clodosious

yea those righteous democrats are better, NOT

Melting Granite

A man who opposes DNA testing that could reveal whether someone is guilty or innocent because “it would muddy the waters” is a sociopath or a psychopath. He is incapable of empathy, or for the concerns of the lives of others.

I’d say John Bradley is either a sociopath or a psychopath, and he should be in prison for the rest of his life.

david

Puts a whole new light on the Cameron Todd Willingham case. With this guy at the helm of the forensic science commission, who knows what truths were being suppressed.

david

Just saw the documentary about this on Netflix. Morton’s case somewhat parallels the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. A man wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, and a warden who wants to keep in there after hearing the truth. Bradley would be that warden.

clodosiousmaximus

arrogant smug prick

real justice is lost

Same guy that got travis losue coerced into a guilty plea while a minor, and got the dude 20 years without a complete investigation which would have showed the victim lying about her accusation with witness accounts supporting Travis’s innocence, this guy should be in jail for instruction of justice and legal criminal neglect

AnnaBanana2

At least Bradley admits now that he was wrong (6 years too late). The guy who actually prosecuted Morton – Ken Anderson – has never admitted that he did anything wrong.